A Taylor Vortex reactor is used as an advanced mixing reactor for the continuous manufacturing of active material precursors for batteries which also have applications in the fields of (co-)precipitation, (re-)crystallization, photo-catalytic reactions, polymerization, sol-gel process, coatings, filtration and biological systems. The Taylor Vortex reactor is composed of two co-axially positioned cylinders with a gap in between where the reaction proceeds with the Taylor Vortex flow induced by the rotation of the inner cylinder.
A Taylor Vortex reactor has a well-defined flow regime with a unique flow behavior (Taylor fluid flow) which promotes a high degree of uniform super-saturation in the circumferential direction of the reactor. Therefore, this reactor results in a sharp particle size distribution with uniform morphology compared to Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) which is commonly used for the synthesis of cathode precursors for batteries in the industry. The Taylor Vortex flow provides a homogenous intense micro-mixing zone and produces spherical particles with narrow particle size distribution.
However, conventional Taylor Vortex reactors are used for liquid-phase reactions under atmospheric pressure. When gas-phase bubbles are generated during a reaction, they are trapped in Taylor vortices. If there is a considerable portion of gas-phase reaction together with liquid-phase reaction in the Taylor Vortex reactor, it is more difficult to form Taylor fluid flow because of the lowered viscosity by gas-phase and the reaction time (residence time) decreases because of the possession of reactor volume by gas-phase which seriously deteriorates the chemical reactivity, particle growth and morphology caused by it. Accordingly there is a need for a reaction apparatus that provides a pressurized Taylor vortex reaction minimizing the volume fraction of the gas phase involved in the reaction.